How do you protect marijuana? After all, legally, it’s a brand industry, transitioning from the black market. If you own a recreational marijuana shop, or plan on owning one, a security team can provide valuable and essential service.

For example, since marijuana is still illegal on a federal level, banks have their hands tied with the industry. Cash is not being protected properly. Sure, shops are required to have video surveillance on site, but sometimes that’s not enough. In addition, protecting money isn’t the only problem. What about those customers who enter the store? Are they properly ID’d? What about maintaining order in the store and keeping the customers and staff safe? These are just a few things that need to be addressed when protecting the marijuana industry.

And just like that, Oregon has become the 4th state to join the legalization of marijuana revolution. While there are no licensed stores to purchase from, get your containers and seeds ready because you can at least grow it!

Have a safe and fun 4th of July this weekend, and then we will see you on the other side of the celebration.

According to the Oregonian, to celebrate legal marijuana, at the stroke of midnight on July 1st, free weed will be handed out. Yes, you read that right. FREE WEED.

When Oregon officially legalizes, you will not be able to purchase the herb right away. Instead, you are going to have to wait until you can grow a plant yourself which takes several months, or you find someone willing to gift you some. In this case, your friend is the Portland chapter of NORML who will be organizing a gathering on the West side of the Burnside Bridge at 11:30pm, on Tuesday, June 30, to celebrate. If you are an adult over the ages of 21, you can be gifted free marijuana. How cool is that? Free cannabis!

In addition, you will be able to meet local vendors and cannabis friendly companies, test vaporizers in the vape tent, receive a free gift bag, choose from an assortment of food to devour, and listen to some good music. And then you can call yourself officially spoiled.

When Denver and Seattle legalized marijuana, they had a couple of what you can call ‘get-together celebrations.’ When Portland legalizes marijuana, this will be something entirely different and on a grander scale. You’re not going to want to miss this.

Even though legal marijuana is for adults 21 and older, the new campaign to inform everyone about the rules and regulations comes across as a little under age and juvenile. First of all, the slogan: Educate Before You Recreate, seems like something that would be introduced to a junior high cheer squad. Secondly, it doesn’t help that the use of hues on the infographic, located on the campaigns website, is primary color dominant.

Educate before you recreate (size cropped to show comparison)

Kindergarten quilt pattern

Once you can get past the aesthetics, the Educate Before You Recreate infographic makes it clear that you must be 21+ years of age, use cannabis in the confines of private property, possess up to 4 plants, , that it’s illegal to drive under the influence, and that you can share or give away but you can’t sell or purchase (except from a licensed store).

But there are a couple of rules, regulations, or laws, that are not so clear:

1) You can’t take marijuana in or out of the state. That includes Washington

Doesn’t it seem a little odd that you can’t purchase legal cannabis in a legal state and cross the border to another legal state?

But besides this, is it against the law? We don’t actually know because the infographic doesn’t tell us. Although, it does make it clear that public use is illegal, along with underage possession and consumption.

1) You can make edible products at home or receive them as a gift, and can only use them in private places

What are private places? We understand that you can use marijuana on private property and you can’t use marijuana in public. But what is a private place? Can private places be a stall in a public bathroom? Can private places be the inside of a parked car? Can private places be behind a dumpster in an alley? Can I make a private place on the sidewalk using cardboard boxes and my imagination?

At any rate, we never liked laws against where you can consume edibles. If someone is sitting on a bench in the middle of the city eating a cookie, do you automatically think that they are eating a cannabis-infused cookie?

So the rumor started that High Times would take the Cannabis Cup down South to our State, and hold the event in the month of July, when legalized marijuana becomes official. But, the organizers for the event haven’t released any further details, stirring up a little bit of doubt.

Wait a minute. So now that a big portion of the Pacific Northwest – neighboring states even – are about to share legalization, now they are cracking down?

While legalization seems like it’s suppose to relax regulations, even if just a bit, in some cases it seems legalization is just encouraging it.

Colorado and Washington State has legalized cannabis for years now, and both have been running a retail recreational industry for a combined total of around 2 years. They have figured out that part of the equation, but one part they haven’t figured out, is allowing adults a place to legally consume cannabis in public.

If Oregon wants to make a splash, lead by example, find a solution to a problem, and even make some history, we should allow people to open marijuana lounges or bars from the get-go. In other words, make legalization feel a bit more like legalization.

Yes, Oregon, the go-to State in the Pacific Northwest when you don’t want to pay sales tax, is now thinking about taxing cannabis at the retail level.

According to legislatures, some of the benefits include:

1) Sales tax would better accommodate fluctuation in market prices

2) would readily allow the sale of medical and recreational marijuana by the same retailer, exempting those with a medical marijuana card from paying a retail sales tax

This is just the beginning. Oregon is looking at solutions to temporarily allow sales of recreational marijuana at medical marijuana dispensaries, when the state officially legalizes the plant on July, 1, 2015. If this is not allowed, expect to purchase product at Portland marijuana stores later in the year, or into 2016.

According to www.priceofweed.com and Forbes, the state of Oregon cruises into first place with the least expensive price of weed. $204 for an ounce.

Don’t let this price of marijuana in Oregon fool you. Just because the price of pot is cheap, doesn’t mean that the quality is also cheap. Oregon has always been known for quality when it comes to cannabis.

Washington State, just North of Oregon, has a fairly inexpensive price for weed: just $232 per ounce. This is interesting because recreational marijuana stores within the state has received quite a few complaints for high prices.

Overall, it’s also interesting to note that the cost of weed in the western USA is a lot more inexpensive when compared to the midwest or east coast.

It will be interesting to see how this price fluctuates once Oregon and the city of Portland welcomes legalized cannabis on the first of July, 2015.

First impressions go a long way. If it is a memorable one, you’re not going to be forgotten. If it is a lackluster one, good luck.

While the quality of the product, in this case marijuana, is the most important part of the equation to success, the atmosphere can have a lot to do with it as well.

Amsterdam is a perfect example. The most popular Coffeeshops, the Dutch version of the marijuana retail store, are the ones with not only some of the best weed, but ones with the best atmosphere as well. De Dampkring, Green House, and Grey Area, to just name a few. These three shops have strong enough cannabis to make you forget about your visit, but chances are that you still won’t.

Photo Credit: The Original Dampkring

Photo Credit: Green House

Photo credit: www.wunderland.com

Another example is Ganja Goddess, located in the Industrial District near the SoDo District and Downtown Seattle. Ganja Goddess has an old world look and feel that is accented with shiny sparkling chandeliers, an artsy chalkboard menu, and a hand-painted cannabis leaf on the back wall. Sure Ganja Goddess carries some of the most popular cannabis brands, but visitors are also enamored by the looks as well.

Ganja Goddess in Seattle

For a third example, you don’t have to look further than the Rose City itself. Brooklyn Holding Company, a Portland, Oregon medical marijuana dispensary decided to go all out with their prohibition, old world look and feel. In fact, even the budtenders dress up in garb of that era. Once you leave this shop, you will never forget it. Couple this with high quality cannabis, and your experience will be unforgettable. A+B. It’s this type of equation which will have people coming back for more.

Photo Credit: chrisryanphoto.com

If you build it, they will come.

Owners, keep that in mind when designing and creating your recreational marijuana retail store. You are in an industry that is not drab or bleak. You are not in the business of automobile tires, appliances, or cutlery. You have a product that is not only unique, but it spurs creativity and enhances imagination. Be an extension and reflection of this.

Don’t hold back. This is your chance to not only be a part of history, but to put your stamp on it as well. Don’t just create a place where people can legally purchase recreational marijuana. Create an experience for that person. This is exciting times! Let that feeling shine through your vision.